i made a cassarole!!

Improvising is slowly becoming second nature. I was totally one of those anal-retentive cooks that HAD to have everything on the recipe list and would immediately blame my failure on lack of some minor thing, like not fresh spices, or using the wrong baking pan. I realize now that it's really technique and intuition. It might say it'll be done in twenty minutes but sometimes it's done in ten. Feeling my way through some terrible kitchen disasters I'm starting to figure out what to look out for (undercooking=bad, smoke? you should probably pull it out, taste test everything!).

Yesterday I made my first attempt at a rice casserole and it came out amazing. Here's the scoops. It's a chicken and barley bake, but I didn't have pearl barley so I just substituted rice. Turned out better than I had anticipated.

Ingredients
4 Chicken thighs (I used with bone and skin, but you can do boneless skinless)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
3/4 cup water
1 cup rice
Half a block of chicken bouillon (like a teaspoons worth?)
Clove of garlic, minced
Parsley for garnishing

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. Season with salt and pepper and fry in a skillet with olive oil, five minutes on each side or until brown evenly. Set aside, and in the same skillet fry the onions and garlic. Add carrots, water, bouillon, rice. Bring to a boil. Pour the mixture into a casserole dish.

Now I did something wrong here; I put them in casserole dishes I could not cover. I moved them immediately after this photo into a larger casserole dish with a lid. Otherwise, the rice won't steam. Make sure the rice mixture is moist with a bit of excess water; it has to steam in the oven. Place pieces of chicken atop the rice mixture.

Bake it covered for at least an hour or until the chicken is no longer pink and the rice is soft. You don't want to disturb it too much because you'll release the steam (thus disrupting the rice cooking process). After it's done, let it sit, covered, for ten minutes before serving. Garnish with parsley.

My mom was really pleased! The veggies in the corner were a complete bust so I won't even go into any details. But as you can tell, the parsley I used was dried and not fresh. I don't think it affected the flavor so much so, but it didn't make it look as appealing as I had hoped. Lesson learned! The rice was a little worrying, too. If it comes out a bit dry, just add a little water and mix it around. It'll fix itself.

I'm making ribs and flan now, so I'll post about that a little later!